The Big DumpTruck

I am moving some of my archived photos over to Flickr, if they are good enough to live there. This one, taken the day after the Sox won the World Series in 2004, is one of my favorite photos ever, combining my great love of Walt Disney World and the Red Sox.

We watched the game(s) from our hotel room at the Beach Club Resort. The day after the win, we went to the Magic Kingdom, because as they say in the commercials, "I'm going to Disney World!" My eyes COMPLETELY teared up when we saw the entire length of Main Street, both sides, lined with Red Sox balloons. I could not have been prouder at that moment.

Oh, so anyway, Flickr has this thing called "Explore" that everyone wants to get into because typically only the best photos are in Explore. This photo was added, then dropped, and added and dropped again this week. If you look at the little picture over on the right that links to my flickr photos, it currently says 1 photo in Explore. If it says 2, that's a good thing. If you happen to have a moment, could you click on this photo to look at it in detail on the flickr site? You don't have to comment on it if you don't have a flickr account, but it would be really cool if I could get this one back into Explore.

Labels: Disney, photos, Red_Sox

Just got a note from Amazon that I didn't make enough money from referrals to get a payment this month. I've gotten the same message for the past several months. The big problem with that is that the minimum threshold to get a payment is only ten dollars. Ten bucks! Wow, it appears nobody is using the old DumpTruck to drive to the Amazon mall. And nothing from the other clickable ads that are over there on the right that I'm not allowed to talk about for fear the company in question will send me to Six Flags to have my feet cut off. And I beg you, do NOT go over there and start clicking because the sudden upswing in traffic will probably set off some kind of alarm that I picture being akin to the ones in the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant. Don't harsh my mojo by clicking or they will kick my butt out of the program. But say, in a week or two, if something comes up that looks interesting (and by interesting, I mean something that you really and truly are interested in learning more about or purchasing) by all means. That's what it's there for. I will throw in a few key words to make it interesting. Gumballs. Sandals. Beach weather. Inflatables. Home brewed Beer. (Wow, that would make for a heck of a party, eh?)

So maybe I should come up with some other methods of making money by doing nothing. Possible options include

• Wearing only clothing that has the logo of your company on it.
• Using self-tanner but blocking out the name of your company on one leg, your URL on the other. Subtle, yet sophisticated.
• Using your company's website as a template for the BDT so people will be confused and think they are on your site. I haven't worked out all the kinks on this one so maybe you should just pay me to self tan.

Other ideas?

Labels: advertizing, Amazon, money

[This is a good test to see if my sister is paying attention.]

The other day we were at the new Best Buy in Leominster and I found a "bargain" video set that I bought to bring on our trip to the Cape with my sister's family. The last time we went down, in 2005, I brought down two collections of movies - 13 hours of 1950s and 60s Monster movies and another set of 13 hours of Sci Fi movies from the same era. That's some damned good entertainment. The boys became enamored of Gamera and some of the Sci Fi movies. One that comes to mind has the astronauts stepping outside of the spaceship with nothing to tether them to it, they just hover on the outside like they are standing on the ledge of a tall building.

This time I'm going to be bringing down 3 hours and 50 minutes of Classic Commercials. Oh ya, it's going to be a hot time in the old Cape House in August!

Labels: commercials, movies, summer, Vacation

Hi kids!

Just popping in with a quick one so you won't think I've fallen off the roof or anything. Up to my armpits in stuff to do, and BDT has suffered greatly. Let me just share with you then, that in the past couple of days I have gone to Canobie Lake Park, a baseball jamboree for a league we aren't in, our final playoff game, a Lowell Spinners game, in addition to doing laundry, mowing the lawn and grocery shopping.

I assume eventually we'll get into the "lazy" days of summer, but so far, no go.

Junior started camp today, so we have that routine to get used to. He's already left something behind; I wish we had set up some kind of pool on how many days in it would take for him to not bring all his stuff home. We also could have set a value as a tie-breaker. The item left behind, his water bottle that you put in the freezer overnight, was worth about $4. So, because I didn't have a pool set up, I can official say I won!! My prize? Finding something else to freeze to send with him tomorrow because it's going to be 95 flippin' degrees.

Labels: baseball, camp, summer, weather

My friend Andrea entered a contest to make a video for the Jonathan Coulton song "I Feel Fantastic" over at the PopSci (Popular Science) blog. She is not an animator, and I actually helped her out a smidge by forwarding a list of Mac animation software links. This is my only claim to fame related to her endevor.

She won the contest, and her fabulously fantastic video is available on YouTube.

Labels: friends, fun, movies, music

I was at Target tonight, you know, because that's where I live, looking at some fans for the house. We need one for our spare bedroom (which is not so spare when my step kids are visiting) so I was checking prices on some. A woman who was browsing with a male companion approached me and said "excuse me, do you have any box fans?"

Me: "I'm sorry?"

Her: "Do you have any box fans?"

Me: "Me personally? No. I, uh, don't work here."

Her: "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!"

My shirt wasn't even really red, more brick-ish. Sheesh.

So now I'm thinking I should get a real red shirt, have a nametag made up, and wander the aisles or Target giving bad advice.

Labels: fun, shopping, Target

I like this one so I thought I would post it to my blog. My blog needed something flowery to remind you that it's girl-based. I know you thought for a minute that me talking about being a mom was some kind of ruse, but it wasn't.

The background on this is actually little white rocks, but the depth of field makes it look like marble or something like it. Maybe a snow drift. Okay, maybe not.

You are not going to be able to read about a few things here today because I am not going to write about them. If you came here to read up on these topics, I'm truly sorry. Maybe next week I will want to write about them, but for now, I will not.

• My favorite knock-knock jokes that involve dwowning
• Why I prefer ketchup on my roast beef sandwich
• The benefits of salt
• My favorite air drumming songs
• Why a blue pen is better than a black one
• Paris Hilton's prison-issued underwear woes
• How often the 1920 Girl Scout handbook says you should wash your hair
• The horror of watching your 3rd grader become a 4th grader overnight
• Why mentioning Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan is only good for attracting random visitors but not your loyal readers who prefer, say, Fred Mertz prison jokes
• Suggestions for how to weed through all the coffee cups you have received at trade shows to keep the number under 8
• Words I can make from my phone number(s)
• Things Mr. Dump won't be getting for fathers day

I'm sorry I'm not going to be talking about those things. Maybe if you all feel very strongly about one or more of them, you can convince me to cover the topic. Otherwise, tough it out, people.

Labels: fun, writing

As you can see, Junior is attempting to milk the big fiberglass cow at Sturbridge Village. You can see it in the cow's eyes...she's not happy. Not happy at all. The boys, on the other hand, thought this was great. In fact, we made three trips to Ye Olde Milking Station. Bossy was full of water, and on a hot day, if you aim it juuuuust right, you can spray each other. Now that is a great way to make sure the bus loads of 9 year old boys will tell everyone they had a great time on the field trip.

I have to say, they have made a lot of improvements at Old Sturbridge Village since the last time I was there, and although I'm greatly saddened by the fact that they have apparently closed the restaurant, they are making improvements to other buildings. Do me a favor, and schedule a trip down some time this summer. I know they've had financial issues and I'd hate to see such a great place close. Plus you can milk a fiberglass cow.

Labels: Cow, fun, junior, summer

We had baseball games on Saturday and Sunday this week. The difference between Saturday's sauna game (I thought I was going to pass out at one point - I can't imagine how the boys in their polyester uniforms and knee socks handled it as well as they did) and Sunday's wearing-three-layers in the drizzle game was staggering.

Interestingly, the IFO (because after a minute it was no longer a UFO) incident happened on Sunday, when it would have seemed more appropriate for the hot day.

We were standing, watching the game, when suddenly we saw a "balloon" take off from the neighborhood behind the ball fields. We quickly realized it wasn't a balloon, but more of a flying donut with strings or something hanging off of it. I decided (and others agreed) that it looked like a flying pool toy - our assumption being that someone had a helium tank and had filled up an inflatable pool ring with helium, turning it into a balloon.

What an odd site. I would have killed to have my camera. Or to be on hand when the thing finally landed somewhere and people have to figure out how they ended up with a pool ring on their roof.

Labels: baseball, summer, toys, weather

You know, I started to write a post that was me pretending to have a secret insider view of what was going on in Paris Hilton's jail cell, but you know what? That's a lot of work that I'm just not prepared to do. Plus, every bozo on the planet is writing the same thing today, so I will be different and NOT write about what is happening with Paris today. You don't mind, do you? I didn't think you would. You're all very nice like that.

Phantom the Wonder Dog had his annual physical today and we were told to give him green beans and carrot sticks as snacks because he's a bit overweight. Sounds like what my doctor says to me, except I don't eat a lot of milkbones and Beggin' Strips.

Labels: current events, dog

In preparation for Leon (the anti-Noel, duh, June 25th), I stumbled upon some podcasts on iTunes of some awesomely collectible Christmas music in the form of podcasts. I'm busy grabbing as much of it as I can to burn to CD for next Christmas, on the off chance it isn't here in 6 months.

My greatest find of the day is "Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland." I don't know if the artist is a fan or not, but I suspect he is. Either way, it's bloody fantastic. Look up the podcast "B-Sides for X-mas" and just try to not download the whole damned lot of 'em.

I think I'm going to call my sister and ask her if she wants to have a Leon party this year. I think it could be pretty darned fun.

Labels: Christmas_music, itunes, music

I forgot I signed up for the Nanowrimo offshoot called "Script Frenzy". I've committed to writing the script for a 2 hour movie this month. That's really going to fill up my spare time, isn't it?

I wonder what I should write a movie about?

Labels: nanowrimo, script, writing